Thanks to books and films, many are probably heard of the «Mines of King Solomon». At once you fancy yourself as an adventure-seeker or hunter for legendary treasures of ancient civilizations. It should be noted that these mines or to be more exact copper mines are quite real and located only half an hour drive to the north from Eilat.

The Mines of King Solomon are copper mines in the south of Negev Desert, which were developed since 4 B.C. (that is over 6 000 years ago). Now the mines were converted into a tourist attraction, and the entire valley where they are located was made a national park with the name of «Timna». And if you spend your holidays at Eilat you should make a trip to Timna Park.

The park takes the area of over 60 square kilometers. Timna Park has the shape of a horse-shoe surrounded by picturesque rocks. There are no vegetation excepting for rare burrs in the park but it is very interesting from the standpoint of geology.

Among the most interesting places of the park you can name the Solomon's Pillars, the Temple of Hathor, the arc of sandstone, mushrooms of rosy stone, several canyons of various colours (pink, yellow, and black), and Timna Lake.

Solomon's Pillars are sandstone rocks, which were made similar to «feather rocks» by the wind and erosion. You can also find the rocks of similar shape at the Krasnoyarsk Stolby in Russia. The temple of Egyptian goddess Hathor is near the Pillars. As it is known, copper was mainly developed by the Egyptians in the prime time of Old Kingdom. Very interesting tourist paths are created over the Solomon's Pillars and Hathor Temple.

The main tourist center of Timna Park is near the lake. There was created a recreation center, including recreation for family tourists. You can't get to the other sights of the park on foot. If you want to look around all interesting places without a hurry, you should go there by a rented car.